Luke Dittrich
Autor/a de Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets
Obres de Luke Dittrich
Walking the Border 1 exemplars
Obres associades
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Data de naixement
- 20th Century
- Gènere
- male
- Nacionalitat
- USA
Membres
Ressenyes
Llistes
Premis
Potser també t'agrada
Autors associats
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 2
- També de
- 3
- Membres
- 456
- Popularitat
- #53,831
- Valoració
- 3.9
- Ressenyes
- 27
- ISBN
- 10
- Llengües
- 1
Therefore, he includes fascinating bits like the admission of his own grandmother -- Scoville's wife -- to the inpatient psychiatric facility were Scoville performed lobotomies. He departs into memoir at times. He explores the entire history of frontal lobotomy (at some length) and digresses into this history of psychiatry. These subjects come with no form of organization and many of them don't really reach a satisfying conclusion as they get discarded for something else. I found myself anxious to finish but disinterested in actually picking up the book. Frustratingly, Dittrich concludes the book with a brief synopsis of the ways that H.M.'s brain was anatomically different than expected -- a fascinating topic that he left basically untouched.
Also, usually an author's closeness to a subject makes it an ideal topic, but in this case I felt very uncomfortable with Dittrich's relationships to the scientists in this story. He is profoundly unhappy with his grandfather's work, calling his surgery on H.M. unforgivable and rash despite quoting experts who disagree. I think that there's a lot more nuance to performing a surgery on a patient with intractable epilepsy before the invention of modern antiepileptics. Similarly, Dittrich's mother's best friend, the psychiatrist who had scientific custody of H.M. in his later life, is painted as a territorial and vindictive villain.
The parts that are there, that are reflective and that are relevant are fascinating. So, three stars for content and concept.… (més)